The intersection of corporate social responsibility guidelines and indigenous rights: Examining neoliberal governance of a proposed mining project in Suriname Betnaby Haalboom (original) (raw)
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Geoforum, 2012
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Resources Policy, 2012
In this article, I explain the role that scientific studies play in shaping collaboration and conflict over mining exploration in the Ecuadorian highlands. Toronto-based IAMGOLD conducted water quality studies to simultaneously fulfill legal obligations and secure support for drilling in an environmentally sensitive zone. With these studies, IAMGOLD generated collaborative relations with local authorities and university scientists. However, water quality studies were also used by dairy farmers to establish new connections for an opposition movement. The scientific studies enabled IAMGOLD and the dairy farmers to make competing claims about the responsibility for contamination of an important watershed. This article analyzes the conflict that resulted and challenges conventional wisdom that distinguishes a corporation's legal obligations from its voluntary CSR programs. & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. onment'' (European Commission (2001: 5) cited in Hamann and Kapelus (2004)). Although CSR is recognized as a viable route to solve poverty, social exclusion, and environmental degradation (Van Marrewijk, 2003; Merino and Valor, 2011), conflicts continue to mar mining development. Researchers identify several factors that may shape CSR-related tensions in the extractive industries. These include an unequal distribution of CSR benefits (Kapelus, 2002), asymmetries in power between corporations and community members (Calvano, 2008, Newell, 2005), corporate practices that undermine the collective and individual rights of communities (Kimmerling, 2001), and the absence of accountability measures (Coumans, 2010; Hamann and Kapelus, 2004). Although CSR programs may enable corporations to 'go beyond' compliance with local laws (Gunningham et al., 2003), programs can also be motivated by a corporation's search to secure profits (Blowfield, 2005; Hilson, 2007). In this article, I examine scientific knowledge-producing practices and argue that they operate as a form of CSR that organizes and gives shape to public debates over mining development. I position my analysis within critical scholarship on CSR that redefines the term as a ''system of knowledge and practice that embodies particular ways of interpreting and acting on the world'' (
International Association of Impact Assessment, 2008
Anglo Platinum is the world leader in producing platinum, and has reported profits of $8.9 Billion in the last financial year. It is also recognised internationally for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy. It has incorporated human rights principles into its code of ethics and business principles, with integrated environmental aims and management principles. In February 2008, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Miloon Kothari, reported that Anglo Platinum's PPL Mine in the Limpopo Province has already relocated some 6,000 people, and is planning to relocated an additional 10,000, and found that these relocations infringed on the human rights of community members. He advised the General Assembly that large scale mining projects should not be undertaken at the expense of human rights of individuals, or the environment, and that water pollution and the destruction of people's livelihoods should be avoided. Supporting these findings, ActionAid, an international anti-poverty agency, released a report in March 2008 which highlighted several areas of concern, including the contamination of community water supplies as a result of mining activities, leading to health risks, and approached the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate alleged human rights abuses by Anglo Platinum. Anglo Platinum responded with a counter-report, denying these allegations, but many questions remain unanswered, indicating discrepancies between policy and practice. What causes this 'disconnect' between policy and practice? This paper aims to explore this question by analysing the allegations by the UN Special Rapporteur and ActionAid and the responses by Anglo Platinum in the context of the principles of CSR. The findings of this analysis are discussed, and some recommendations regarding best practice strategies to ensure effective implementation of policy into practical decision-making, are made.
Corporate Social Responsibility in the Mining Industries
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Mining is expanding in Latin America, although some countries have a history of mining and are heavily dependent on the extractive sector, for other countries such as Argentina, foreign direct investment in largescale mining sector is relatively new and communities are apprehensive about its contributions to national socioeconomic development and impacts on the natural environment. The Government of Argentina started to promote mining sector in the country with an introduction of a new National Mining Code in 1995, which encouraged open pit mining, technological development and liberalisation of investment regime. Several multinational companies invested in the mining sector of Argentina, including Barrick Gold, Xstrata and Meridian Gold, mostly in gold and copper mining. Multinational mining companies in Latin America often face fierce opposition from local communities and community-based organisations. In Argentina, several provinces banned mining activities on their territories and some mining projects were stopped due to public resistance. The paper critiques corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework adopted by multinational companies as inappropriate for local needs and context, thus communities often reject corporate policies and this affects corporate community relations. Communities often see CSR as a "green wash" on the part of multinational mining companies. Visser's critiques that Western conceptions and models of CSR are not entirely adequate for describing CSR in the developing countries. This paper applies Carroll's (1991) model of a CSR Pyramid, comprising economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities to the analysis of CSR in the mining sector of Argentina. The paper examines scope and components of CSR and analyses the perception of three sectors of the society: government, mining sector and civil society towards the relative importance between the components of CSR. The paper reveals that societal groups have different perception of CSR of mining companies that might contribute to conflict. The analysis suggests that the scope and range of corporate responsibilities in the case of Argentina's mining sector are redefined.
European journal of business and management research, 2024
This paper aims to explore the social and environmental issues that are of priority/importance to the mining host communities in a developing country-Ghana. To explore the social and environmental issues that are of priority/importance to the mining host communities in a developing country, this study used Ghana as a test case and conducted 18 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with respondents drawn from the mining host communities of Prestea and Bogosu. The findings show that members of the host communities-the group deemed to be the most powerful and legitimacy-conferring stakeholder placed pressure (i.e., expectations and/or concerns) on the mining firms that operate in the host communities in terms of their social and environmental performance. Five themes, i.e., general categories, emerged from the data of this study in terms of the social and environmental issues that are of priority/importance to the host communities: a prioritisation of community development projects, environmental/sustainability-related issues, employment of indigenes/local enterprise development, communication of social responsibility information and preservation of local culture and tradition. This study is an exploratory study based on only 18 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, i.e., using purposive sampling. The implication of this study is that because developing countries have similar socioeconomic, cultural, and geopolitical features, the finding of this study may be relevant to researchers and policymakers in developing countries where multinational mining companies (MMCs) operate. Although mining communities' awareness regarding corporate social responsibility has increased in recent decades, to date, we know little about the social and environmental issues that are of priority/importance to the host communities of mining firms in developing countries.
Resources Policy, 2012
This paper revisits the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), suggesting the usefulness of adopting a holistic and historical perspective. It underlines the importance of taking into account the evolving regulatory frameworks within which mining activities take place in order to consider the changing roles played by the various actors involved, whether multilateral, national or local, public or private. In this broad context it then becomes possible to revisit issues of legitimacy, responsibility, and accountability, which CSR strategies aim to address. The article draws attention to the shortcomings of strategies, whether bilateral or multilateral, public or private, which, in an attempt to respond to problems of risk and legitimacy faced by mining companies, have put forward measures in the name of CSR that do not address the origins that give rise to such problems and, in so doing, tend to mask the very nature of the difficulties at hand. The analysis leads to quite diff...